I decided to start interviewing some people I admire because I want to understand if my ideas are shared by other noteworthy travellers.

The main question is: has the Travel World become lame or what? What people that have already been there before can tell me??

I randomly started this new section of Monkeyrockworld firing off a few questions to some Italian travellers I had the pleasure to meet in person and shared some real conversation with. I wanted to see if people from my same cultural background could share some of my travelling pet peeves. So here you go, with the first man:

Luca De Giglio, better known as Tripluca . This is not some sort of kiss ass reverential thing, Luca is the first simply because he submitted his answers on time, and first… eheheheheh.

Luca has been travelling the world for quite a while now, before almost settling down, let’s say, becoming a “Non-permanent Resident”. He managed to sustain his travels with an Online Business and created a very useful message board suited to Italian travellers. I discovered Luca while looking for information on an Australian working holiday visa in a very hot Chicago afternoon, back in 2006. Three years passed, I met the man twice, and we have exchanged some witty conversation. He also nominated me as his “Travelling Writer Son” and praised my efforts and writing more than once, but again, the fact he’s here first his not a kiss ass thing but just a mere coincidence. It was almost mandatory I interviewed him for the new era of Monkeyrockworld, ehehehe…

MM- You started travelling in the 90′s, and more or less, are still travelling now. What has substantially changed, in good, and bad?

Tripluca – The biggest shift, apart from my age, is that before I could get lost in distant cities and unless I called home nobody would know where I was and whether I was alive or dead.
While this wasn’t probably the best feeling for my parents, it was great for me. That was total freedom, the kind you really need to experience once in your life if you want to die happy.
Then came the internet and we were suddenly all connected again even in the middle of a hippies meeting in an Australian forest.
But thanks to this, now I can be on the road full time, so I can’t really complain or be nostalgic, can I?

MM- Backpackers. I think they are a low class of scruffy human beings, but you have a more humanitarian approach in your life. Tell me something about them.

Tripluca – I used to look up at them, as they did what I wanted to do. Then I did it and I was one of them. Then I overdid it and I was past them.
So meeting a RTW backpacker today gives me the same excitement as meeting my mum’s friend at the grocery store. All I want to say is “ok, gap year eh? Cool….anything else? Give me another reason to like you, that ticket is not enough anymore”. And most of the times that reason does not come. This is also one of the reasons why I do not wish to be a backpacker anymore: the people I meet are not intriguing anymore. Did they change? I think I changed, so don’t blame them, Monkey.

MM- You are married to a Thai woman, and she travelled with you a bit as well. How does she perceive this, and what does she think about the hordes of white desperados polluting her native country? Do you agree?

Tripluca- She used to perceive travelling as a waste of time unless it’s high style (wrong husband baby) but then she realized how the process of travelling was for her the process of destroying the hundreds of fears society puts in your mind to keep you at your place.
She grew up and I think now realizes why I never gave her money for cosmetics and then wasted a lot in train and flight tickets. Cosmetics go under your skin and disappear, travelling stays forever. Regarding the farangs in Thailand she has generally a good attitude, there is no feeling of pollution…thai men do not seem to be much better

MM- You created a message board where many people, including travel starters with no experience whatsoever, can ask questions about destinations, accommodation etc. usually, more experienced people like you answer them, although many times their questions are very entry level/plain stupid. How do you feel about this? Don’t you think releasing a bunch of Italian domingueros in the world would be more bad than good?

Tripluca- I mostly do not answer anymore to these questions, as others do. I outgrown the message board, and feel connected to just a few of the people in it, but this is enough for me to keep it alive. It’s true that travelling does not improve some people, but it does for others. The balance is still positive.

MM- I did my fair bit of travelling as well, and I think globalization gave a chance to “third countries” nationals to embrace beliefs that are totally wrong for them. For example, last week I was in Kota Barhu, self proclaimed “most Muslim city in Malaysia” and I saw a Mc Donalds so packed with headscarves and traditional Muslim dresses I couldn’t believe my eyes. What do you think about this current trend of levelling the world to a “noadventure/no divides” place?

Tripluca- This is the biggest mistake people do when evaluating the level of local culture in a country. And you do it too.You see a McDonalds and cry for help to the Local Cultures Preservation Fund. It’s just a fucking restaurant which happens to sell shit in a fashionable way. Give me a break, they may eat hamburgers but culturally they are still thousands of milesfrom us. In other words there is not lack of cultures gap in the world, and there won’t be for many hundreds years to come, don’t worry. Come to Venice, enjoy a “ghe sboro chei cani de ta morti” in a bacaro and you will see what I mean. Cultures, bad and good aspects of them, are so much stronger than global brands. And then what the hell is a “belief right for them”? Islam is better for them than local religions of the past or the non religious approach they will have in year 3220? I mean, I hope we all evolve, leaving behind inappropriate stuff like organized religion and become human beings at our full potential. If it has to go through McDonalds, let it be. The ways of the Antichrist are endless.

hey luca if you think religion is not fully connected to people traditions and all life itself you didn’t understand totally anything about india..you have been there i guess..but what about all the many countries where religion is still the first thing for the people either organized or animist it is?
i think your last two lines of your reply are dreadful..and i’m not so keen with church.maybe that’s why you love so much thailand.

Hi Pablo,
I am not 100% to which lines you refer to, but if it’s to:
“I hope we all evolve, leaving behind inappropriate stuff like organized religion and become human beings at our full potential.”
an explanation is that I consider religion as way to get there, but the easy and cheap one…it more or less works, and more so for uneducated people, but being an over simplification of the spiritual life it’s more full of bugs than Windows Vista, often creating more harm than good.
I suppose and hope we will evolve and leave it behind in a few hundred years.

hi tripluca, i’m and old reader of your blog(and monkey’s too)and as long i find your posts very enjoyable and intelligent i sometimes don’t agree with your issues.
i cant’ see all this fair evolution leaving behind organized or not religions along with their ancient traditions rituals and history to leave instead place to the real harmful one,the money’s.
unfortunately we are fastly going in that direction and this is sad.
i’m going to leave to south east asia for my third trip there, would be nice to meet you up and keep on talking,maybe with some chilly beers!!..cheers

@Pablo:
I am not in Asia now, but Italy, so you’ll have to make the most of Monkey.
It’s not like the real thing, but a good substitue

you say that when we leave the religion behind, only money is left.
This is typical: we mix religion and spirituality as we mix sex and love. They may go together, and if they do, great, but they are different things.
What I think is that religion is a like coca cola in a bottle: they take the water, sugar it, add some gas and some chemicals and they sell it to us. Then we think we need the coke, while all we actually need is the water in it.
Water is free and healty, coke is not.